First test

Many national leaders responded to America's presidential election with a warm welcome to the victor, Barack Obama.

Not so Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev greeted the incoming U.S. administration with threats to place missiles deep inside Europe and jam the planned U.S. missile shield.

In his first state-of-the-nation address Wednesday, the Russian leader criticized U.S. foreign policy as "selfish" and blasted America for economic mistakes.

Without mentioning the president-elect by name, Mr. Medvedev said he hoped the new administration would improve relations with Russia. Apparently, the fault is all America's, although the Russian said: "We have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism."

He blamed U.S. foreign policy for sparking the war in Georgia, charging it offered an excuse to send NATO warships into the Black Sea and hasten the deployment of antimissile systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.

He advocated demotion of U.S. influence on the world stage.

Analyst George Perkovich told the Wall Street Journal the speech was reminiscent of one given by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 when U.S. President John F. Kennedy came to office. "It looked like a clumsy effort to test the new president's mettle," said Mr. Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. "It's a psychological ploy the U.S. should not fall prey to."

There will be many tests. No doubt Russia will do its share.